As much as I hate to admit it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right: Women are, indeed, a "left-wing fringe group."

As much as I hate to admit it, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right: Women are, indeed, a "left-wing fringe group."

That's the phrase he used in September, in a not-so-closed-door speech to supporters, to describe organizations that have fought for women's rights in Canada.

That was evident last week in Parliament when MPs, including 12 members of the NDP and eight Liberals, voted to scrap the long-gun registry, claiming it was what their mostly rural constituents wanted.

No doubt. But how many of those clamouring constituents were women?

Poll after poll has shown that women, including rural women, overwhelmingly supported the long-gun registry.

Since it was introduced in the mid-'90s, the number of women killed by their rifle-wielding partners has dropped. But, even with the registry, one out of three femicide victims is still killed by a rifle, with country women the most vulnerable, according to Statistics Canada.

Who knows how many women are intimidated by the shotguns and rifles – 91 per cent of the (registered) non-restricted firearms in Canada – sitting in the gun rack?

Which is why, if a person is arrested for abusing his or her partner, police can search the domicile, seize weapons and ban the suspect from owning guns, at least until acquittal – although this is not always enforced, to sometimes tragic consequences.

Still, Parliament, dominated by men although the majority of Canada's citizens are female, shot down women in order to satisfy the gun lobby.

And who is the special interest group here?

Meanwhile, Saturday night in Washington, D.C., members of Congress, again overwhelmingly white guys, threw women's rights under a bus.

Democrat – Democrat! – Rep. Bart Stupak introduced an amendment to President Barack Obama's health care reform legislation that would severely curtail women's access to abortion. His argument was that it would help persuade recalcitrant fellow – yeah, fellow – Democrats to accept the legislation if it would keep women from getting taxpayer-subsidized abortions.

Simply put, the amendment prevents all but the richest women from getting health insurance riders to cover abortion – except if they are raped or victims of incest, but not if they carry a brain-dead fetus – even if they want to buy the rider with their own money.

But then, as we have seen in recent months, having a vagina is "a pre-existing condition" for insurance companies looking to refuse coverage to women.

On CNN the other night, a rape victim described how her company refused to cover the expensive drugs needed to ensure she wouldn't acquire HIV from her attacker. Even some women of child-bearing age have been denied coverage because they might get pregnant.

So now, the price for getting the watered-down version of socialized medicine for U.S. women is giving up control of their bodies – or essentially be taxed for having a uterus.

The thing is, Stupak and many of the other 64 Democrats (all, but two, men) who voted for his anti-choice amendment, are said to be members of a clandestine Christian group called, The Family. Indeed, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, also all-male, not only actively lobbied for the amendment, they reportedly got final approval of the wording.

Well, you'd expect the Church to lean that way.

What was shocking to so many women was how even progressive men were willing to use women's rights as bargaining chips. Even The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, whose most recent book, Women Hold Up Half the Sky, promotes women's reproductive freedoms, said Tuesday on Facebook that abortion rights can wait.

Make no mistake: What happened in Washington could happen in Ottawa should Harper's gun-loving, abortion-hating government win a majority.